Holy Sonnet VII
At the round earths imagin'd corners, blowYour trumpets, Angells, and arise, ariseFrom death, you numberlesse infinitiesOf soules, and to your scattred bodies goe,All whom the flood did, and fire shall o'erthrow,All whom warre, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies,Despaire, law, chance, hath slaine, and you whose eyes,Shall behold God, and never tast deaths woe.But let them sleepe, Lord, and mee mourne a space,For, if above all these, my sinnes abound,'Tis late to aske abundance of thy grace,When wee are there; here on this lowly ground,Teach mee how to repent; for that's as goodAs if thou'hadst seal'd my pardon, with thy blood.
Words in this poem
- trumpets n.
- A plant (Sarracenia flava) with long, hollow leaves.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- dearth n.
- Scarcity which renders dear; want; lack; specifically, lack of food on account of failure of crops; famine. [OE. derthe, fr. dere. See Dear.]
- mourne n.
- The armed or feruled end of a staff; in a sheephook, the end of the staff to which the hook is attached. Sir P. Sidney. [See 2d Morne.]
- repent a.
- Prostrate and rooting; -- said of stems. Gray. [L. repens, -entis, creeping, p. pr. of repere to creep.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Holy Sonnet VII is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of John Donne, Volume 1 (of 2) Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts, Project Gutenberg ebook #48688; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Donne, Holy Sonnet VII, in Poems (1633), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #48688, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/donne-poems/holy-sonnet-vii.html, id L20848.
Form and metre
Holy Sonnet VII is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCDEE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABBAABBACDCDEE blowA · ariseB · infinitiesB · goeA · o'erthrowA · tyranniesB · eyesB · woeA · spaceC · aboundD · graceC · groundD · goodE · bloodE
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| At the round earths imagin'd corners, blow | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| Your trumpets, Angells, and arise, arise | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘/ |
| From death, you numberlesse infinities | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| Of soules, and to your scattred bodies goe, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| All whom the flood did, and fire shall o'erthrow, | 10 | ······/··· |
| All whom warre, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies, | 9 | ······/˘˘ |
| Despaire, law, chance, hath slaine, and you whose eyes, | 10 | ·········· |
| Shall behold God, and never tast deaths woe. | 10 | ·˘/··/˘··· |
| But let them sleepe, Lord, and mee mourne a space, | 10 | ·········· |
| For, if above all these, my sinnes abound, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| 'Tis late to aske abundance of thy grace, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| When wee are there; here on this lowly ground, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Teach mee how to repent; for that's as good | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| As if thou'hadst seal'd my pardon, with thy blood. | 11 | ······/˘··· |
Notes from the edition 5
Herbert Grierson's record of the readings of the early editions and manuscripts, from his Poems of John Donne (Oxford, 1912; Project Gutenberg #48688).
- Line 5 o'erthrow] overthrow 1669
- Line 6 dearth, W: death, 1633-69, A18, B, D, H49, N, O'F, S96, TC
- Line 8 woe. W: woe, 1633-54: owe; 1669
- Line 12 lowly] holy 1669
- Line 14 thy] my 1669
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.